Not so fast, my friend. Wait, that's not Lou Holtz's line. That's Lee Corso's line.
Anyway, not so fast, my friend. Just a day after rumors began flying that the former coach at (insert name of every Division I school here) was considering running for Congress in Florida's 24th congressional district, Holtz has now told a South Bend TV station that he's not going to run.
Holtz spoke to WNDU-TV during a golf outing in southwestern Michigan on Wednesday. The 72-year-old coach confirmed to others, though not directly to WNDU, that he met with Republican strategists. Holtz did tell the TV station he was happy with his job at ESPN and was going to "fulfill the commitment" he made to the World Wide Leader.
Holtz would seek the Republican nomination in Florida's 24th congressional district, which includes parts of the Orlando suburbs and the Space Coast.
If Holtz succeeds in winning the nomination, he would challenge first-term Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, a Democrat from New Smyrna Beach. Should Holtz win in 2010, he would join Nebraska's Tom Osborne, who represented Nebraska's 3rd district from 2000 to 2006, as the only college coaches to serve in Congress.
Skip Holtz is kind of god-like in Greenville, N.C. After all, he has taken the East Carolina Pirates from "always-ran" to "false hope BCS team that made it to the GMAC Bowl."
Of course, with that success comes, inevitably, other schools that play the role of suitor. And the latest news, as is incredulously being "broken" by his own father Lou Holtz -- whose journalistic credibility knows no bounds -- is that Syracuse is really interested in Skip and that he has agreed to sit down and talk about their vacancy.
"I know he has not met with them thus far," Lou Holtz said tonight. "I know he wouldn't do that with so much riding on his team (going to the Conference USA championship game). We're going to be in New York. Notre Dame is having a dinner for me tomorrow night which (Skip) and wife are coming up as well. Syracuse will be there. I think they're going to talk. He hasn't met with them. He's going to talk to them. I know they want to talk to him. I think they've asked permission. I'm not in the middle of negotiations. I'm not an agent. I'm just trying to hang on to my job and do a TV show".
Asked if Skip has interest in the Syracuse job, Lou said he did.
Prop Bets for the College Football Junkie is a weekly post that cares not for your silly point spreads. If you have the money and the gumption, we'll lay down a weekly gauntlet of propositions that'll take you from the penthouse to the outhouse faster than you can guess the number of times Lee Corso will say "not so fast my friend." As always, this is for entertainment purposes only.
$ Lou Holtz has put his foot in his mouth each of the last two weeks in the controlled environment of the studio. So what does ESPN do? Not suspend him for saying basically the same thing Jemele Hill said. No, they put him in front of a mic for three hours for the Thursday night game between West Virginia and Auburn. If there was ever a "give him enough rope" move by a broadcasting company, this is it. So naturally, we put the straight up bet to you loyal reader. Will Lou Holtz say something inflammatory? Yes, West Virginia jokes count!
$ Lets go with this. Let's say his does get suspended or fired. I'm not advocating it, because I enjoy him in his natural state or doing the pep talks. But let's face it, ESPN will have to do something if he has another slip up. Here's a multiple choice straight up bet that one of the following will happen if Holtz is fired:
-Mark May's perceived IQ will drop 50 points automatically.
-Trev Alberts will walk back into the Bristol studios with a "show me the money" look on his face.
-Regis Philbin will show interest, but someone will mention that the last guy was a Notre Dame guy.
$ Continuing with the same theme, Holtz won't sit idle for long. NBC would probably love to have him doing commentary on Notre Dame games. So we put the over/under on the number of times NBC will ask him to tone down the homerism in the first month at 10.
Jemele Hill was suspended by ESPN when she remarked in a column that rooting for the Boston Celtics was like cheering for Hitler (or some inappropriate Nazi reference of the sort). So, it followed that when Lou Holtz referred to Hitler and how his leadership skillz relate to Rich Rodriguez, he would be equally punished.
Turns out, um, not so much. You would think that Hill would be pretty upset at the obvious (right?) double standard that took place at the WWL over the past few months, but according to her all-flash blog, well, she's "okay" with it.
My initial answer is a story, or rather, a moment. A couple years ago, I was visiting the Poynter Institute (one of the foremost journalism think tanks in the country) and I sat in on a session taught by one of my favorite columnists and people, the Washington Post's Sally Jenkins.
A student asked her if she ever got upset when other writers were rewarded -- particuarly those writers who weren't as good. And Sally said -- and I'm paraphrasing here -- that she always prided herself on keeping her eyes on her own career. I never forgot that.
That's my answer. That's how I feel.
Okay, so I wouldn't say she's "happy" about the whole business, but she's at least willing to keep her mouth shut and move on.
Of course, that kind of maybe probably has to do with the fact that making a stink out of this whole business won't do wonders for her employment status at this point, and moving on makes the most sense. On the other hand, both of them referenced Hitler. Both of them made the a stupid public mistake; only the medium is different. So, personally, I fail to see why Lou is going to be on the moving picture screen again this Saturday.
Jemele Hill was suspended by ESPN when she remarked in a column that rooting for the Boston Celtics was like cheering for Hitler (or some inappropriate Nazi reference of the sort). So, it followed that when Lou Holtz referred to Hitler and how his leadership skillz relate to Rich Rodriguez, he would be equally punished.
Turns out, um, not so much. You would think that Hill would be pretty upset at the obvious (right?) double standard that took place at the WWL over the past few months, but according to her all-flash blog, well, she's "okay" with it.
My initial answer is a story, or rather, a moment. A couple years ago, I was visiting the Poynter Institute (one of the foremost journalism think tanks in the country) and I sat in on a session taught by one of my favorite columnists and people, the Washington Post's Sally Jenkins.
A student asked her if she ever got upset when other writers were rewarded -- particuarly those writers who weren't as good. And Sally said -- and I'm paraphrasing here -- that she always prided herself on keeping her eyes on her own career. I never forgot that.
That's my answer. That's how I feel.
Okay, so I wouldn't say she's "happy" about the whole business, but she's at least willing to keep her mouth shut and move on.
Of course, that kind of maybe probably has to do with the fact that making a stink out of this whole business won't do wonders for her employment status at this point, and moving on makes the most sense. On the other hand, both of them referenced Hitler. Both of them made the a stupid public mistake; only the medium is different. So, personally, I fail to see why Lou is going to be on the moving picture screen again this Saturday.
ESPN has set a precedent for suspending its writers, commentators and personalities when they make stupid references to Adolf Hitler on air or in print. So, one would expect them to at the very least suspend Lou Holtz for a week or two of college football coverage following his Hitler - Rich Rodriguez analogy.
A source at ESPN tells me that the Worldwide Leader does not plan to discipline college football analyst Lou Holtz for saying, "Hitler was a great leader, too."
Per the source, ESPN considers Holtz's on-air apology to be sufficient.
I'm not so offended by Holtz' statements that I want him to get booted from the WWL for a week or two, but I wouldn't mind seeing it just so, again, people will stop doing this. (Yes, "this" means "referencing Hitler".)
Also, I'm one of those people who are really annoyed by the whole Dr. Holtz skits, so I wouldn't mind catching a break for a week or two on that as well. Oh yeah, and if I was Jemele Hill, I'd be freaking teed off that Holtz wasn't getting suspended.
A questionable choice of words on air again for Lou Holtz. I didn't see Holtz compare the leadership skills of Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez to those of Hitler on College Gameday, and I didn't see him apologize at halftime of today's Clemson/Georgia Tech game either (I blame DirecTV for the latter -- apparently they felt like showing up on the back half of their four-day service call window.)
But that doesn't matter, because I didn't need to. I was informed of what he said and I know what he referenced:
"Ya know, Hitler was a great leader too."
Having heard Holtz egg the discussion and then subsequently have to apologize on national television, I think we need to realize there are two important issues at hand here.
First, everyone involved in sports: stop making Adolf Hitler analogies/comparisons/metaphors. Please. Unless you are a Holocaust survivor, this is something you do not want to discuss. (Nor do you have any business discussing it.) It is an important part of history but it has nothing to do with sports. At all. So stop.
Prop Bets for the College Football Junkie is a weekly post that cares not for your silly point spreads. If you have the money and the gumption, we'll lay down a weekly gauntlet of propositions that'll take you from the penthouse to the outhouse faster than you can guess the number of times Lee Corso will say "not so fast my friend." As always, this is for entertainment purposes only.
$ With the big news of the week being the firing of Tommy Bowden at Clemson, the crew at ESPN will be sure to debate the thought process at Clemson. Lou Holtz will most certainly defend Bowden and Mark May will defend the administration. So we give you a straight up bet that Holtz will forget the camera is still rolling again this week and have some less than flattering words for Clemson. What the heck, +/-5 on the number of times he says "damn."
$ Jim Harbaugh and Rick Neuheisel are both known for taking jabs at opposing teams and coaches in the week leading up to the game. As both have been quiet this week, we're sure they are saving everything for the post game handshake when Stanford plays at UCLA. The conversation will most certainly revolve around the post-game speech Neuheisel gave after the Tennessee game. Straight up, one of two thing will be said depending on the outcome of the game. Neuheisel-"Jim, I'd love to stand here and talk, but I've got a speech to give. Better luck next year, loser." Or, Harbaugh-"Doesn't look like anyone stuck around for your speech tonight. You guys got any games left on the schedule you think you can win?"
$ When Mississippi State travels to Tennessee, we'll be seeing the 103rd and 104th worst offenses in the country. So we'll put the over and under on the closeups of each team's offensive coordinator at +/-10. Because if someone is going to go, these guys are going to get the boot first.
Prop Bets for the College Football Junkie is a weekly post that cares not for your silly point spreads. If you have the money and the gumption, we'll lay down a weekly gauntlet of propositions that'll take you from the penthouse to the outhouse faster than you can guess the number of times Lee Corso will say "not so fast my friend." As always, this is for entertainment purposes only.
-Mark Mangino and Kansas play this Friday night at South Florida, and it is going to be hot and humid. Like 93 degrees and 100% humidity. I know it gets hot in Kansas, but the humidity can't be anywhere close. So naturally, we're putting the over/under on the number of pounds Mangino will lose from the opening kickoff to the last gun at 20lbs.
-Shots of Beanie Wells foot in pregame +/-5 just seems too easy and really not all that much fun. But the over/under on the number of references to the Pac 10 teleconference this week during the USC-Ohio State game at +/-3 could be entertaining, and a straight up yes/no on if the announcers will reference the part about condoms is one we can only hope for.
-The game this week between Michigan and Notre Dame isn't exactly living up to the history of this rivalry. The two teams combined to score 37 points against.....well.....no one really. So we put the over/under at 20 for the number of closeups of Weis/Rodriguez blowing up after a bonehead mistake on offense.
Not so fast, my friend. Wait, that's not Lou Holtz's line. That's Lee Corso's line. 
Just when you and I both thought college football couldn't get any weirder, it's trying. The 
Skip Holtz
ESPN has 
A questionable choice of words on air again for 
